Life Got Cold
by Spikerox
Summary: Mini prequel to The Exchange Student. The song (Life Got Cold by Girls Aloud) gave me the whole idea for TES so i thought i'd better explain why. Rating for drugs etc


Life Got Cold  
  
Prequel to The Exchange Student (which I promise will be updated soon... as soon as I find the floppy disk it's saved on).  
  
The title's from the Girls Aloud song Life Got Cold, which gave me the idea for The Exchange Student in the first place.  
  
AU – no vampires, no Slayer, no Hellmouth. And this is out idea of fantasy...  
  
Enjoy  
  
Buffy  
  
We text as we eat  
  
As we listen to the freaks  
  
As we wait for the right of way  
  
We text as we talk  
  
We're running as we walk  
  
Cause we self our little souls away  
  
The lights lit up on Buffy's cell phone as it beeped and vibrated itself off the edge of the bed. She leant over to retrieve it. The screen announced that she had '1 new message'; it turned out to be from Kendra. She was just checking that Buffy was feeling better and would be all right for the cheerleading practice the next day.  
  
Buffy had skipped school today; mild food poisoning she'd said when she phoned the school office earlier.  
  
Of course, that was a lie. It was parent-teacher day at school ad her parents where busy sunning themselves on a private island in the Caribbean. They didn't care about little things like how well their daughter's education was going.  
  
Buffy quickly told Kendra that she was feeling lots better and would be back at school tomorrow.  
  
She flopped back onto the bed, staring up and the still ceiling fan. The house was fully air-conditioned but her dad had to have ceiling fans as well, just to say he had.  
  
Tears fell down her cheeks but no sobs followed; this was nothing new. She should be used to the cold by now. She should have learnt to shrug it off and forget about it. But she couldn't.  
  
She wasn't a robot. She had feelings and needed to be shown that she was loved. She could put on a brave face and fake to the world that she was happy. But it would always be a lie.  
  
Buffy was far from happy. Sure, she had great friends and a killer wardrobe but it wasn't enough. She needed her parents' love. She needed adult support that wasn't backed by cash. She needed to know if they cared if she existed or not.  
  
It wouldn't change though. Life couldn't just do a flip in a matter of days, weeks or even months. This was it. Forever.  
  
Next week the stupid exchange student would arrive. Just another person in the house. Just another way for her parents to show off their 'charitable' side. Just another nothing.  
  
My life got cold  
  
It happened many years ago  
  
Dawn  
  
We smoke as we choke  
  
As we sink another coke  
  
And we grin when it blows our mind  
  
We skate as date  
  
As we slowly suffocate  
  
We're running, we're running  
  
We're running out of time  
  
Dawn blew out a puff of smoke and stubbed the end of the joint into the brick wall of the alley.  
  
Her head was buzzing; the loud, low, happy, humming noise made her laugh out loud. She spun around a few times. Her hands knocked against the walls, grazing them slightly. But she didn't notice. She was too busy feeling happy for a change.  
  
Joints of weed were her favourite way of forgetting. Alcohol tasted nicer but took longer and the bar tender would stop serving her after a couple of drinks and that wasn't enough to forget. While one joint was plenty to drive the memories from her brain for at least a day. She just had to be careful to fake a headache before school tomorrow in case they did a surprise drugs test.  
  
Dawn smiled as the moonlight hit her face. This was where she belonged; in the alley behind The Fish Tank. This was her place.  
  
She needed to forget. If she didn't she'd go mad. She needed to forget the blank, loveless faces of her parents. Thos ghostly faces that only ever lit up when they heard the word 'work'.  
  
The only person in the whole world that really cared about her was probably lying on her bed, crying her eyes out. That was Buffy's way of dealing with things and this was Dawn's.  
  
She lit up again, just a normal cigarette this time. She should probably go back into the bar for a few drinks and some dancing with Storm before heading home.  
  
Home, home is where you live and feel comfortable and where you feel you belong. Her home was here. The house was just a place she had to stay, by law, until she was eighteen.  
  
The law sucks. Life sucks.  
  
My life got cold  
  
It happened many years ago  
  
And long ago  
  
I lost my soul  
  
To some forgotten dream  
  
But how was I supposed to know  
  
It wasn't what it seemed  
  
And even though the last to low  
  
Has left me on the floor  
  
I don't believe in Romeo's  
  
Or heroes anymore 


End file.
